PRESS RELEASE: Pablo de Greiff to launch first Annual Justice Lecture hosted by Lawyers for Justice in Libya and SOAS

"Failing Justice: Beyond the Failed State" - January 28th at Brunei Gallery SOAS, University of London

January 10, 2019

The UN’s first Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, will be speaking at SOAS University of London this month.

The event will take place on 28 January 2019 and will form the first Annual Justice Lecture at SOAS, hosted jointly by Lawyers for Justice in Libya, a Libyan and international independent non-governmental organisation, and SOAS’s Centre for Human Rights Law.‍

Pablo de Greiff was appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council as a Rapporteur in the group of experts to advise on the Council’s prevention role. He has lectured in many universities around the world, including Yale, Harvard, Columbia and NYU, and published extensively on transitions to democracy and the relationship between morality, politics and law. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Director of the Transitional Justice Program at the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at the School of Law at New York University.

The aim of the event is to create an open and varied dialogue on justice and human rights in Libya and to promote greater understanding and engagement with these issues. With Libya being labelled by many as a “failed state”, this inaugural lecture will explore what justice means in this context and how notions of transitional justice are useful in the non-typical scenarios we face today.

Elham Saudi, the Director of Lawyers for Justice in Libya, said: “We are proud to have Pablo de Greiff give the first Annual Justice Lecture. We know that he will bring a unique insight that is both intellectual and practical to the Libyan scene.”

Dr Lutz Oette, Director of the Centre for Human Rights Law at SOAS, said: “Rather than writing off the question of justice in Libya as an exercise in futility, exploring its meaning in the context of ongoing violence and weak state institutions promises opening up new avenues for imaginative and constructive engagement. SOAS provides a fitting space for this first annual lecture, hosted jointly with a major non-governmental organisation in the field, Lawyers for Justice in Libya, to explore the multiple dimensions and challenges of 'justice' in the country and beyond.”

The event will be the first of a series of annual lectures designed to explore questions of justice related to Libya or using Libya as a case study. ‍

Register to reserve your place at the Annual Justice Lecture, 28 January at 5.30pm. Entry is free, with a suggested donation of £15 to support the projects carried out by Lawyers for Justice in Libya.

Lawyers for Justice in Libya is a Libyan and international independent non-governmental organisation and UK-registered charity committed to achieving justice and respect for human rights in Libya through advocacy and outreach, accountability, transitional justice initiatives, research and capacity building.

The Centre for Human Rights Law at SOASUniversity of London seeks to advance research and the teaching of human rights law and engages in standard setting and policy-making processes concerning the protection of human rights.

SOAS University of London was founded as the School of Oriental Studies. Over the last century, the School has built a strong academic reputation throughout the world and especially in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Today SOAS is among the world’s elite university institutions currently ranked to 61 in the world and 13 in the UK in the 2019 Times Higher Education Arts & Humanities Subject Ranking and among the world’s top for teaching (2019 Times Higher Education World University Ranking). SOAS is also in global top 10 for international experience, according to Times Higher Education.‍